– Good news for fans of Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show: Warner Bros. has renewed the strip through 2017 on more than twenty station groups, including all ten of the NBC-owned stations. Airing on WMAQ in Chicago at 3 p.m., Ellen is the top-rated program among women 25-54 in the time period, besting rival talkers Katie, Dr. Phil, and Maury. […]
For CBS’ The Good Wife, life is good… and about to get better. CBS Television Distribution scored a syndication mega-deal for reruns of The Good Wife, with a multiplatform off-network rollout staggered between today (yes… today! This very day!) and September 2014. Good Wife was not only sold to traditional platforms who are regular customers (cable networks and local stations) […]
The Tribune Co. Unofficially puts its papers on the block; Oscar viewership is up over a year ago; and more Mancow is headed to your TV: – It looks like the Chicago Tribune is up for sale. As first reported by CNBC on Monday, the 166-year old paper and others in the chain are on the block by creditors who […]
(Editor’s Note: Due to illness during the period NATPE took place this year, yours truly unfortunately was not able to write much about the conference. Oh well… there’s always 2014! – T.H.) When the NATPE convention began in the spring of 1964, it began as a small gathering in a New York hotel. Flash forward to 2013 – and after […]
The T Dog Media Six Pack is back! Yes the roundup of winners and losers in the media business has an election theme as the race for the White House is over… Landslide victories Barack Obama. Okay, it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park for our 44th President, but his defeat of challenger Mitt Romney to win a second […]
We knew Mickey Mouse had a little Darth Vader in him. The Walt Disney Co. announced its acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company behind the Star Wars franchise. Included in the deal is visual affects company Insudtrial Light & Magix, Skywalker Sound (a post-production sound house), LucasArts (computer and video game division), and Lucasfilm Animation, which produces Cartoon Network’s […]
Look what washed up on the shores on the beaches of L.A. after all these years : it’s the human garbage disposal: Jay Mariotti. Two weeks ago, the former Chicago Sun-Times columnist and Around The Horn panelist on ESPN – and who twice pleaded no contest to misdemeanor domestic abuse – wrote a not-so-glowing piece on Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler […]
Break out the Dr. Peppers! After a long wait, T Dog Media is now on Facebook and YouTube. The T Dog Media page on Facebook was launched quietly on June 21, as a sub-page of my personal account. Most posts you see on T Dog Media will be posted on the Facebook page – in addition to some exclusive content […]
A bunch of items in this week’s Grab Bag: – Is Robin Robinson on her way out at Fox-owned WFLD? Sure looks like it: According to a report surfacing a little over a week ago at Chicagoland Radio and Media, Robinson is expected to depart when her contract expires later this year. Robinson is the longest-tenured anchor at WFLD, being […]
– Its over and out for Robert Murphy: Hubbard-owned WILV-FM (Rewind 100.3) has pulled the plug on his morning show after just seven months on the air. Murphy, who was a morning superstar at the former WKQX-FM back in the 1980’s, was unable to replicate his previous success. February’s Arbitron PPM numbers showed Murphy tied for 25th in the key […]
The 49th annual National Association of Television Programming Executives closed its three-day run on Wednesday from the Fontainbleau Hotel in Miami. The gathering attracted many attendees from the around the globe, especially from South American countries, who were seeking Spanish-language programming. In addition, NATPE had a growing digital contingent, thanks to the growing influence (and clout) of Amazon, Hulu, and […]
As far as NATPE goes, the days of the big booths with a just-as-big picture of Mary Hart front and center are long gone. But the mission remains the same – for individuals to gather and network with industry professionals (not to mention making a sale or two.) The three day gathering got underway Monday with increased attendance and increased […]
It’s time to grab your favorite beverage (a six pack of it would be best…) because it’s time for T Dog’s Six Pack! In this edition, Jerry Bryant expands his business, Betty White’s is actually on her rockers celebrating her 90th birthday while the Rev. Michael Pflager is far off his. Rounds of Hot Cocoa for everyone. […]
How desperate can they get? On Tuesday, the Sun-Times Media Group announced it was erecting a paywall for its papers’ website beginning on Thursday. The paywall goes up for all of the company’s newspapers, including the south suburbs’ SouthtownStar, Northwest Indiana’s Post-Tribune, and the Chicago Sun-Times itself. Beginning on Thursday, visitors are allowed 20 free page views a month. But […]
Oh happy day – frozen bananas for everyone! If you ever thought about dropping Netflix due to their recent fiascos, you might want to take this into consideration – especially if you were an Arrested Development fan (like yours truly.) The Emmy-award sitcom is returning with new episodes – via Netflix – in 2013. Arrested Development ran on Fox for three low-rated […]
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